Who else is a total fan of @vanillacrunnch? We’ve been following Lara for ages now and are often left drooling over her food pics and photography skills. We’ve even shared one of her favourite recipes in our food section. But aside from that, there’s a lot more that we’d like to know about this Vanilla Crunnch mastermind including her favourite place to visit and her dream career…let’s find out!!

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Hi Lara, before we start, can you tell us a little about yourself:

My name is Lara aka vanillacrunnch and I love chocolate. I think everything tastes better with chocolate and I cannot understand people treating themselves like with a piece of chocolate per week 😉 It’s insane as I could not make it a day without that sweet brown goddess.

I think there was not really a reason. I always loved baking and photography. I think my blog was the one thing bringing these two passions together. The project “Vanillacrunnch” never had a purpose or a reason it was simply me doing what I love sharing it online.

Although the name suggests vanilla, if you had to choose, would it be vanilla or chocolate?

Wooops, totally spoiled that in the intro 😉 Of course, it would be chocolate but let’s hope I never have to decide between those two, since vanilla is amazing as well and I couldn’t imagine baking without good quality vanilla extract. I think when I decided on a name Vanillacrunnch did sound fancier than chocolate crunnch 😉

• • • •Is blogging your full-time job?

I wish it was. Truth is I am still working in a “normal” job from Monday to Friday. I am doing all the blogging work at night or weekends. I hope one day I can make the step and be brave enough to do the full-time blogging thing.

• • • •What do you get up to in your spare time apart from cooking?

Well, I really love nature and especially the sun and water. I love to be outside whenever it’s possible. I love hiking, roller skating but also just a nice quite walk at the river. Whenever you visit Switzerland, don’t forget to swim in the river “aare” it is amazing and something you’ll never forget! Google for “Swimming in aare” and you see what I mean 🙂

There are so many amazing places but as of today it is HAWAII! It’s such a crazy place when it comes to nature and of course I love the Acai bowls and fresh fruits they have. My favorite place is a place called “Banan”, where they serve Bananaicecream in a lot of variations. They have this awesome thing they do called: Bring your own bowl, where you can bring your scrapped out melon or papaya or pineapple half.

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What’s your favourite colour?

It is a color I call “mint green” 🙂

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How does it feel to know that you’re inspiring hundreds of thousands of people?

Haha huh, I don’t know whether I do, I mean it’s great if I do but most of the time it scares me more than I would be proud of it or feeling like a role model. It is so great when people try my recipes and succeed. There is no better feeling than receiving happy words from inspired people. I recently changes my blog and added more personal topics. This is a step that was very challenging for me at first but then so rewarding. I feel that sharing knowledge and talk about is so much worth it in a connected world as we have it today. We have the chance to get the knowledge and this is what I call power.

My dream career would be working in a job I really feel passionate about. It doesn’t matter where or what it is but I believe that I will feel it once the moment is there 😉

• • • •Where do you live right now? And what’s your favourite place about being there?

I currently live in Bern, Switzerland but will spend the summer in London. There are so many favorite places I have in Bern but as already said I really like the river Aare and the lovely view of the mountains. Bern also has amazing food spots that I love to hang out on weekends

• • • •You’ve published an EBook…what’s the greatest lesson you’ve learnt from that process?

Don’t remind me about this.HAHA. Now looking at it I am so ashamed as I improved so much since then. But I learned that I really needed the help of friends and families. There are many challenges and you always have to correct something. At the end of the day I was happy I had this experience and I would love to do a second one 🙂

We’ve just relaunched our blog and it’s been an absolute headache. What’s the best tip you’ve learnt from building a website?

A looooot of strong nerves. Seriously, if you have a good friend that knows HTML or anything blog related, marry him. I didn’t have any help and I’ve been awake for days and nights. I think if you are patient and do one thing after another then you will be fine. You can always adapt small stuff and change your layout. I wanted too much at the beginning and then I was frustrated that the blog did not look as I wanted to. I was or still is a challenge but you can grow and learn so much! You will want to cry or smash something but it will be good at the end 🙂

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We totally agree!! Do you have any holidays planned for the rest of 2016?

Not in 2016. I will use my vacation days for my internship at google in London and therefore there is no time for a vacation. I am looking forward to 2017! Any suggestions where to go?

Yes! You must come and visit us, we are based outside of Oxford, about 45 minutes from the centre of London. Whilst the city is amazing, we love living in the countryside. It’s idyllic!